1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to music stands and particularly to a music stand which incorporates extendable side panels to enlarge the usable area of the music stand when needed.
2) Description of Related Art
It is common for musicians to use music stands for holding sheet music during the playing of a musical instrument. It is common that music stands are designed to hold a single book of sheet music. When it is necessary to utilize additional books of sheet music, musicians use two or maybe even three in number of music stands located in a side-by-side arrangement. This results in a maze of music stands in the performing area. In a situation of an orchestra, there is usually limited space. Therefore, the utilization of the large number of music stands provides a confining situation. A musician may make a slight movement and cause a music stand to be knocked over.
It is common for musicians to move from one performing location to another. This means that the musician must carry his/her own equipment. In order to facilitate the carrying of one's own equipment, it is common to utilize a collapsible music stand. Thus, there has been a need in the past for a collapsible music stand which provides an enlarged support area for sheet music. There are of course times when only a single book of sheet music is being utilized and not requiring the need for the enlarged area.
In the past, there have been constructed music stands which were collapsible and could be utilized to support a single book of music and could be modified to accommodate multiple books of music. Such a music stand is shown and described within the aforementioned parent patent application. The music stand of the present invention is similar to the stand of the parent application in that there is utilized a center panel to which are mounted on each side thereof a side panel. These side panels are movable to either an extended position in substantial alignment with the center panel or are movable in abutting juxtaposition to the center panel. When in the extended position, the music stand can accommodate multiple books of music. When the side panels are in juxtaposition to the center panel, the music stand can accommodate a single book of music.
One advantage of the music stand of the present invention over that of the stand disclosed in the parent application is that there is eliminated any need of any locking arrangement between the side panels and the center panel. The total number of panels utilized within the present invention are reduced while yet maintaining the same overall extended width of the music stand that is disclosed within the parent application.